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M_a_x wrote:How long ago was this? Admittedly, all my experiences with Erika were 5 years ago...if they've cleaned up their act, I sure would be interested in working with them again. As I've always said, quality quality stuff.

This was in Summer of 2004, late(ish) July I believe.

A couple quick questions:

How many raw vinyl suppliers are there in the world? (Meaning, where the pressing plants buy their vinyl from.)

And the other question is about covers. Over the last few years I've noticed a few LPs with the old-style covers (paper that is folded over the jacket and glued). A few that come to mind as examples: Magnolia Electric Co. by Songs:Ohia, Every Day by Cinematic Orchestra, Sings Greatest Palace Music by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, and Good God!, that gospel compilation by the Numero Group.

Does anyone know which companies are printing these style covers?


Thanks.

Bambouche wrote:And the other question is about covers. Over the last few years I've noticed a few LPs with the old-style covers (paper that is folded over the jacket and glued). ...

Does anyone know which companies are printing these style covers?

I don't know who did the jackets you mentioned, but Stoughton Printers did the last Bedhead and first New Year LPs.

http://www.stoughtonprinting.com/gatefold.html

Bambouche wrote:A couple quick questions:

How many raw vinyl suppliers are there in the world? (Meaning, where the pressing plants buy their vinyl from.)

Does anyone know which companies are printing these style covers?


Thanks.

First I think most of the PVC manufacturers have left the US. So most of the vinyl is being imported from overseas. Not sure of the whole story on this but I did get a small story about it from one of our manufacturers a while back.

As for the sleeves. Those are referred to a "tip-on board" or "Tip-style" or "old-Style" Jackets. And we have been using Stoughton Printing in CA to make ours.

http://www.stoughtonprinting.com/

Ask for Rob.

TheMilford wrote:
http://www.stoughtonprinting.com/

Ask for Rob.

And order a fuck of a lot of copies, because if you don't they will ignore you.

We've generally order 1000pcs. That's a pretty small order.

If you wanna go smaller you may want to consider Stumptown Printers.

first, i'd say...this is vinyl. you don't want to rush anything. take the time it takes to get it out. it'll be fine so if by "service" people mean quick jobs, i will say i'm not interested in quick pressings, so much as quality pressings.

Musicol--again...i own records they've pressed and they have bunches of clicks and pops. it just seems low grade and flimsy. i just cannot pay for that. the sounds sucks and the vinyl is poor quality.

RTI--they're busy and slower (at times) than some presses but that should tell you something. if they're that busy, that means they do good work. they have the one proprietary press for www.classicrecords.com. that should also tell you something. They're nice, moderately quick and the vinyl is the shit. I love RTI.

Mastering...the "no Golden b/c he digitizes argument" really only leaves you with GZ vinyl. Everyone in the states digitizes for cuts and mastering these days. Face the music, times are a changin'. Besides, if it sounds good, who cares if it's digi?

with that said...www.saffmastering.com is where it's at. the leg up that Saff has (once again) is that he's great, cheap(er) and if you don't use his master, he doesn't charge you. Grails recently picked Saff's master over Golden's for the Temporary Residence LP they're doing. check out the before and after samples on his site.

Jackets--Dorado press...great stuff. Stoughton printing...great of tip on style but they're pricey as shit. if you have a buttload of money to spend solely on jackets...by all means. if not, go with Dorado. Imprint in Florida brokers for Dorado now and they offer better pricing than Dorado direct. their current deal is 1000 full color jackets with 1 color/1 sided inserts for only $995. that's a fucking deal. good luck selling a 1000 lp's though.

abcgroupdocumentation wrote:Mastering...the "no Golden b/c he digitizes argument" really only leaves you with GZ vinyl.

http://www.recordtech.com/atmweb/

Also, iloveimprint.com has started doing 12" covers. Similar great deals. I don't know what they're like, but their 7" covers have done me well in the past.

these are the same processes that Golden uses...at RTI...and yes, he's very good too.

No they don't. The studio is set up to be able to do AAA. He can do digital but doesn't have to. He has the 2nd cutting head.

Edited because it looked like I was dissing Kevin Gray - which I would never do. He is awesome!